Brooke Henderson accepting role as Canada's golf ambassador ahead of CPKC Women's Open

CALGARY — Brooke Henderson didn't even have time to finish her fruit cup, the last of a very on-the-go breakfast.

In a whirlwind stopover, Canada’s top golfer zipped from the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Seattle to Calgary late Sunday night, to well, be Brooke Henderson at the CPKC Women’s Open media day Monday.

It doesn’t make things any easier for Canada’s best and busiest golfer to continue to be equal parts off-course ambassador and on-course assassin but playing the role of ‘Brooke Henderson’ is becoming more natural for the person herself.

And there’s no more evident time of Henderson’s summertime stretch than her upcoming red-and-white double — the CPKC Women’s Open at the end of July, and the Olympics in early August.

“It’s going to be a very busy summer. Very busy, but very exciting,” Henderson said Monday from Earl Grey Golf Club, the first-time host of the CPKC Women’s Open about 15 minutes from downtown Calgary. “When I set out my schedule for this year, pretty much the rest of the summer is all circled of weeks that I wanted to peak for.”

Some of those weeks have passed already. She missed the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open at a tricky Lancaster Country Club layout (Nelly Korda, the game’s top-ranked player and six-time winner already this season, shot a first-round 80 and also had an early exit) before finishing T22 at the KPMG Women’s PGA. That major was hosted at Sahalee Country Club, where Henderson broke onto the scene as an 18-year-old and won the Women’s PGA in a playoff for her first major title.

This week, Henderson is paired up with Lexi Thompson at the Dow Championship (the LPGA Tour’s only team event) before finally taking a break. All in, she’ll have played 10 of 11 weeks.

Henderson has five top-10 finishes so far this season already including a tie for third at the first major of the year. Her 13 wins on the LPGA Tour represent more than all of the current Canadian men on the PGA Tour’s number combined — with a couple to spare — and this is the greatest generation of PGA Tour stars this country has ever seen. She’s second on the LPGA Tour in total birdies and sixth in greens in regulation this season. Henderson is 67th in putting average, yes, but she was 71st in that same stat in 2022 – when she won twice.

During down (well, “down”) times, results-wise, there are often calls on social media to mix things up. She could, of course. But golf’s hard, and for the last decade she’s done what no other Canadian in the sport has ever done — and there’s comfort in the familiar. Brittany, her sister, is in the sports hall of fame at Coastal Carolina for golf and walked most of Earl Grey Monday morning with a yardage book while sister Brooke started her run as the face of Canada’s women’s national open. And the event has become the ultimate balancing act for her.

She won it in 2018 in Regina (and was in the final group Sunday the next year in Aurora, Ont.) before carrying the tournament on her shoulders when it returned to Ottawa after the two COVID-19 impacted cancellations.

The CPKC Women’s Open has been named the Tournament of the Year at the LPGA Tour’s year-end awards in back-to-back seasons.

“We really have a secret sauce,” tournament director Ryan Paul said last year.

For all the effort put forth by Paul and his team (it’s no small task — this year’s CPKC Women’s Open is set to have 95,000 square feet of structural build-out, the most in the tournament’s history and the most of any event on the LPGA Tour. Plus, ticket sales at this point in the year are up 30 percent year-over-year and they had to close down registration on a few volunteer committees in March because they had so many people ready to rock) the “sauce” is really whatever gets bottled by Brooke.

Henderson recalled Monday a story when she first qualified for the CPKC Women’s Open in 2012, her father took a picture of the trophy but didn’t touch it. That photo hung up in the Henderson home for years and she walked past it most days. When she did win, her entire family got a photo together holding the trophy.

“It was a huge highlight of my career (winning the CPKC Women’s Open). In a way, it changed my life,” Henderson said Monday. “This event has always meant so much to me.”

Henderson’s victory in Regina was one of Mike Whan’s favourite moments when he was commissioner of the LPGA Tour from 2010-2021. It’s incredibly special, he said, when a global superstar comes home to win.

“When that happens, it’s pretty powerful,” Whan told The Canadian Press in 2019. “If I had 150 Brooke Hendersons, I could own the sporting world.”

The CPKC Women’s Open has just one Brooke Henderson, however, and days like Monday emphasize how busy playing that role is. There are questions to answer, of course, but also a photo shoot and smiles and handshakes and a drive to the airport and a cross-country flight and another drive to this week’s tournament.

“It’ll be a big summer, but I feel like my game is trending in the right direction right now,” Henderson said. “A lot of good things happening. Seeing a lot of positives. Hopefully, it will all come together in a month’s time.”

Henderson and Alena Sharp will once again represent Canada at the Olympics (the third time for both) and Henderson said she’ll try to actually enjoy being an Olympian this time around — she’s hopeful to attend the closing ceremonies.

But how is she planning to carry the golfing load of both a tournament and a country in a fortnight?

She admits that the week of the CPKC Women’s Open can be energy-draining — she wants to give fans as much of her time as possible, but she also wants to play well, so she’s become better at setting a schedule for the week — but also, she said she gains energy from the crowds. The same will hold true at the Olympics. It’s no surprise she said, with her megawatt smile, that she wants to win both.

“Just trying to balance everything and give the proper time where it’s due is key to both,” Henderson said. “It’s such a unique and amazing opportunity, and I just try to see it as that.”